Topic: Activision Officially Reveals Guitar Hero World Tour

[NWR_Neal]

Formerly known as Guitar Hero IV, it will contain two new instruments (drums and vocals) and allow players to create their own songs.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=16033

 After a previous reveal by their CEO, Activision finally divulged official information about the newest game in the Guitar Hero series, Guitar Hero World Tour. This game includes a variety of new features that all circle around the addition of vocals and drums. Another big addition is the music studio that allows players to create their own songs and share them. However, 1up adds the addendum that the studio will be "sans vocals".    

   The game touts itself as the first Guitar Hero game to allow in-game downloadable content on Wii but besides the fact that people can share their created items (something people have been able to do since Elebits), no other details are given. Along with the rest of Guitar Hero III's online modes, the new game also includes an ambitious eight-player "Battle of the Bands" online mode.          Activision promises the "biggest selection of on-disc music with all master tracks" and says that the game will contain songs from bands such as Van Halen, the Eagles, Linkin Park and Sublime.      

   Guitar Hero World Tour for Wii is being developed by Vicarious Visions and is due out this fall.    

   

ACTIVISION UNVEILS GUITAR HERO® WORLD TOUR – THE DEFINITIVE ROCK & ROLL MUSIC VIDEOGAMING EXPERIENCE      

New State of the Art Wireless Instruments      

Innovative Music Studio Lets Players Compose, Record, Edit and Share Music        

Biggest Selection of On-Disc Music with All Master Tracks      

Robust New Eight-Player "Battle of the Bands" Mode      

First Game Ever in the Guitar Hero® Franchise to Allow In-Game Downloadable Content on Wii      

Santa Monica, CA – May 22, 2008 – When the house lights go down this fall, a new generation of axe shredders, drummers and fearless frontmen will come together and rock with Activision, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero® World Tour.  The latest installment from the #1 best-selling video game franchise of 2007, Guitar Hero World Tour will transform music gaming by marrying Guitar Hero’s® exhilarating guitar gameplay, with a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless instruments with revolutionary new online and offline gameplay modes.  The game will feature a slick newly redesigned guitar, a genuine electronic drum kit and a microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock and roll anthems, along with online Band Career and 8-player "Battle of the Bands."      

Delivering the largest on-disc set list in a music-rhythm game to-date, Guitar Hero World Tour is comprised entirely of master recordings from some of the greatest classic and modern rock bands of all-time including Van Halen, Linkin Park, The Eagles, Sublime and many more.  Additionally, the game will offer significantly more localized downloadable music than ever before on all of the next-generation consoles.  Budding rock stars will also be given creative license to fully customize everything from their characters’ appearance and instruments to their band’s logo and album covers.      

In addition to a newly designed more responsive guitar controller and microphone, Guitar Hero World Tour will deliver the most realistic drum experience ever in a video game with an authentic electronic drum kit.  Featuring three drum pads, two raised cymbals and a bass kick pedal, the drum controller combines larger and quieter, velocity-sensitive drum heads with soft rubber construction to deliver authentic bounce back and is easy to set up, move, break down and store.        

"Guitar Hero has set the standard for music-based gaming and with Guitar Hero World Tour and the game’s groundbreaking Music Studio, we are once again delivering unprecedented innovation that has the potential to revolutionize consumer generated music, much in the same way that video sharing hubs have driven user generated video," said Dusty Welch, Head of Publishing for RedOctane.  "With the introduction of our advanced high-quality new wireless instruments, in-depth customization options and advanced online functionality, the game enables music fans and gamers globally to share in the most social and expressive music experience ever."      

Guitar Hero World Tour delivers more ways to play than ever before.  Virtual musicians can live out their rock and roll fantasies by playing either a single instrument, or any combination of instruments, in addition to the full band experience.  In addition to all of the online gameplay modes from Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero World Tour introduces Battle of the Bands mode which allows eight players to join online and challenge each other band-to-band to determine who is the best of the best.  In the Band modes, up to four players can jam together, online or off, as they progress through the game, and in single-player Career Mode, players can jam on any of the instruments in branching venue progression enabling them to rock out in the order of their choice.      

The game’s innovative new Music Studio lets players express their musical creativity by giving them access to a full compliment of tools to create digital music from scratch, utilizing all of the instruments, and then play their compositions in the game.  Music creators will also be able to share their recordings with their friends online through GHTunes™ where other gamers can download their unique compositions and play them.      

Guitar Hero World Tour is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.  The Wii™ version is being developed by Vicarious Visions.  The PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system version is being developed by Budcat.  The game is not yet rated by the ESRB.

[walkingdead2]

content download... content download.  i thought the rock band people said you couldn't do it... ohhh yea turns out they were just lazy.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I love Vicarious Visions, they are such a talented group of people and kudos to them (and Activision) for not gimping the Wii version.

[NWR_Neal]

content download... content download.  i thought the rock band people said you couldn't do it... ohhh yea turns out they were just lazy.

If you read between the lines, its just shared songs. I might be proven wrong later, but I don't think the Wii version will actually see downloadable content. You will just be able to play user created songs.

[NWR_insanolord]

They didn't say either way whether it's just the created songs or commercial DLC. They may not have decided about that yet. It does seem likely that it's just going to be created songs, though, but that's pretty good too. If all you want from DLC is new songs to play when you get tired of the included ones then this may be better than commercial DLC because it's (I assume) free.

[Morari]

I was pretty excited with this news when it came out a few weeks ago. Rock Band is going to be so horribly gimped on the Wii that it won't even be worth considering as a purchase. This simply ensures that I will not only get everything I would have gotten with a proper port of Rock Band, I'll be getting a helluva lot more!

[Deep-Six]

Since FFCC:MLAAK (wow, even abbreviated its hella long) seems to have launched the Pay to Play "service" (logo and everything) it seems DLC is now available for devs.  I fully believe it'll have commercial DLC when it launches.

No matter what I'm still going to call it Guitar Hero 4, World Tour I just find awkward to say and it's not really necessary of a name change.

[ATimson]

content download... content download.  i thought the rock band people said you couldn't do it... ohhh yea turns out they were just lazy.

Or that Nintendo didn't allow it or didn't have the APIs for it at the time. As the owners of the shop (metaphorically and literally), the ability to do anything like DLC is gated on their cooperation.

[Morari]

Nope, the Wii version of Rock Band just reeks of laziness in every single aspect.

[Dan_Flyhight]

Nope, the Wii version of Rock Band just reeks of laziness in every single aspect.

I agree and disagree. It should have the songs as downloadable content just like the 360 and PS3, however, I can't see it happening with the current set up of the way the Wii Shop Channel is. Its a bit hard to explain from my head, but I just can't see it work. Now of course putting 20 songs on a disc for $30 may not be attractive, but if you're on the 360 you're almost saving money. Songs are $2 a piece on Xbox Live. You're buying 20 songs I believe it is for $30. So you save a little, but its a hassle and you won't want all the songs on the CD which is where the negativity stands I think. That's where the laziness comes in. Now I think they could pull it off with Wii Ware.  But that's a stretch for Nintendo cause as we know, its hard for them to grasp online at this point.

[shammack]

The lack of DLC is MAYBE forgivable if you're very forgiving, but when you factor in that they also left out online play (despite it being implemented quite well in GH3) and band customization, there's really no excuse but laziness.  They had their shoddy PS2 port lying around and they just crapped it onto a Wii disc, and if that's all they're going to do they could have done it six months ago.  Screw 'em!

[EasyCure]

Forgive me for being lazy but does it specifically say there that the wii version will have the create-a-track mode?

I only ask because everything i've read so far boast about GH4's features as a whole, then somewhere towards the end of the article it'll mention wii specifically with "wii will have DLC." I just really hope the create-a-track mode is there because i can see myself really really getting into it. I love anything with a "Creat-a" mode and this will be no different, hell i still pick up mario paint sometimes to mess with the music maker! If the wii version is gimped in this regard, and yet still has DLC, i might actually have to pass this up.

Maybe i'm just being paranoid but it's too good a feature to axe from the wii version, and i haven't seen anything saying its a definite yet..

[Morari]

The lack of DLC is MAYBE forgivable if you're very forgiving, but when you factor in that they also left out online play (despite it being implemented quite well in GH3) and band customization, there's really no excuse but laziness.  They had their shoddy PS2 port lying around and they just crapped it onto a Wii disc, and if that's all they're going to do they could have done it six months ago.  Screw 'em!

No guitar compatibility either. That ensure that I won't even be buying just the disc to play through with my pre-existing controller. They want to spout all of that "open standards" crap, but then shove a proprietary USB dongle down our throats instead of utilizing the Wii remote like Activison (cleverly) did.

[NWR_insanolord]

Forgive me for being lazy but does it specifically say there that the wii version will have the create-a-track mode?

I only ask because everything i've read so far boast about GH4's features as a whole, then somewhere towards the end of the article it'll mention wii specifically with "wii will have DLC." I just really hope the create-a-track mode is there because i can see myself really really getting into it. I love anything with a "Creat-a" mode and this will be no different, hell i still pick up mario paint sometimes to mess with the music maker! If the wii version is gimped in this regard, and yet still has DLC, i might actually have to pass this up.

Maybe i'm just being paranoid but it's too good a feature to axe from the wii version, and i haven't seen anything saying its a definite yet..

According to the information in this thread the song creating and sharing will be in the Wii version but probably won't be as "robust".

[GoldenPhoenix]

Well I am going to give Vicarious the benefit of the doubt since they have been STELLAR when it comes to pushing things on the Wii. So if anyone can do it, they can.

[EasyCure]

i'm gonna be on GP with this one because i really want this to be a fully featured wii version of the game and not a ps2 port

[Flames_of_chaos]

Well Activision unveiled that the Wii version has 2 exclusive features.
1. Miis
2. Air guitar, air drums (AKA wii music style)

Article here

[GoldenPhoenix]

I don't know which version to get now. I'm so torn!

[Ian Sane]

So the Wii version is possibly the BEST version for a change?  YEAH!!  About time!

I get this mental picture of Activision seeing Wii Music and thinking "well we could probably shove that whole thing in our game".  For years all we hear about is how third parties feel they can't compete with Nintendo's product.  Well here's one that can.  They're attempting to take Nintendo's whole game and make it merely a feature in their game.  Wii Music is now in direct competition with Guitar Hero which already has established itself as THE music game on the Wii.  I guess the question is will Activision advertise this enough so that potential Wii Music buyers will know that if they buy just the disc for this game they have access to something similar.

And though I'm beating a dead horse I'd just like to say "IN YOUR FACE ROCK BAND!"

[Flames_of_chaos]

Well Ian, the 360 and PS3 versions are handled by Neversoft,  the Wii and DS guitar heros are handled by Vicarious Visions, and the PS2 version is handled by Budcat. VV were the ones that sorta came up with letting the guitars rumble since you have to put a Wii remote in the guitar.

Also for Guitar Hero and Rock Band the Wii version is the most important version whether or not they want to agree with that statement because both game series sold very well on the Wii. If I get GH:WT on Wii I will be most likely buying the Guitar Bundle because I have Rock Band for 360 and quite frankly I don't really feel compelled to get another drum kit nor do I want to play drums on a game entitled Guitar Hero.   

[vudu]

I'm going to be so pissed if they don't announced cross-compatibility for the Wii instruments very soon.